What is Hack in a Box?

Hack in a Box is Australia’s first schools' program that gets students solving real-world challenges. You can sign up for a FREE trial right here. During the program, students are taught a set of innovation tools that are based on the latest research into what has been scientifically proven to boost creative and critical thinking skills.

Check out this short video below for more information:

The program involves students working closely in groups, through a series of six in-classroom sessions, that can be tailored to fit any subject or extra curricular activity.

Students walk away with a scientifically proven innovation methodology that can be applied in any subject, in their personal life and beyond, to help solve any challenges they need to think creatively about. The skills learnt will ensure students are ready for the jobs of the future, where the ability to think critically and creatively is a must-have for employers.

Hack in a Box was designed by Organisational Psychologists and other science geeks at Inventium, Australia’s leading innovation consultancy. Inventium's methodology has been scientifically proven to drive innovation, and has been taught to leading organisations all over the world, such as Google, Disney, LEGO, and many others.

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How Hack in a Box works

A six-session in-classroom program to boost critical and creative thinking.

Hack in a Box is designed especially for teachers of secondary school students who are looking for a scientifically proven methodology to develop critical and creative thinking skills in their students. The program can be run as part of any subject (e.g. Science, Maths, Business, Gifted Ed, Extracurricular) and across any year level that could benefit from an injection of critical and creative thinking skills.

Hack in a Box is run over six classes. It can be run once a week for six weeks, or every day for six consecutive days - whatever works best for you!

Teachers are given access to an online teacher toolkit, as shown below, that has everything you need to easily and successfully facilitate the program. Preparation can be done in as little as 10 minutes per session.

Teachers choose from three real-world challenges created by Inventium (each challenge has a different focus i.e. corporate, non-government, or a social issue) so you can select the challenge that best applies to your students and goals. These challenges are refreshed once every six months.

Over the six sessions, teachers take students through Inventium’s proven methodology whereby they generate ideas, apply best practice customer research techniques, refine their idea and then finally prepare and deliver a pitch back to their teacher and classmates.

Hack in a Box is perfect for teachers that want to prepare their students to solve real-world problems through enquiry-based learning. Teachers and schools that have an entrepreneurial mindset and place a strong value on innovation and creativity will benefit enormously from the program.

Hack in a Box is being used all over Australia

Here are just some of our happy schools

What schools think of Hack in a Box

Check out the below video to hear directly from students and teachers about Hack in a Box

Why use Hack in a Box?

What is a Hack?

Hackathons have become a standard ingredient in many organisations’ innovation programs over the last few years. Companies ranging from Atlassian through to Commonwealth Bank through to Google are all famous for running Hackathons. A Hackathon involves a group of people coming together to intensively work on solving a problem in a short space of time.

Hack in a Box is our way of bringing the concept of Hackathons into schools. Students are given a problem to solve, a deadline, and tools to help them work collaboratively to solve the problem.

Why use Hack in a Box?

There are lots of great things about Hack in a Box. Here are just a few:

Of course you can! We have a free trial that gives you access to the first of the six sessions. Feel free to sign up here.

When can I start using Hack in a Box with my class?

The toolkit for Term 3 and 4 will be available from Monday the 9th of July, 2018.

What do I receive once I sign up and pay?

You will be given immediate access to the online teacher toolkit. This provides you with everything you need to successfully facilitate the six Hack in a Box sessions with your students, including lesson plans, printing and videos to play during the session.

How long does it take to run the program with my class?

It’s up to you! The program is designed to run over six lessons. You can run one class a week for six weeks, one class per day for one week, or you can even run it all in one day. Most schools are pacing the program over six weeks.

Which age group is Hack in a Box aimed at?

To date, Hack in a Box has been run primarily with secondary school students - mainly Years 7 to 11. The program has been adapted by teachers to be run with primary schools and university students as well.

Which classes is Hack in a Box most suited to?

The beauty of Hack in a Box is that the program teaches critical and creative thinking skills and thus is applicable to many classes. Hack in a Box has been taught in science, gifted-ed, business studies, as an extracurricular activity and more.

How many students can participate?

All students in the class can participate. The students are split into small groups for the entirety of the six session program. The program concludes with each group producing a pitch that they deliver to their teacher and classmates.

How much does it cost?

Your first classroom is completely free!

For up to 3 classes the cost is $250 per term.

If you want to sign up more of your classes than that, you can select the unlimited Hack in a Box option for $500 per term.

Note - you can also pay for a full year, if you (or your accounts department) would prefer to do it this way. Prices above are all ex GST.